Category: Mental Health

#SendALetter – Writing Letters for Good

Posted on by Reema

Today, we come to the end of National Stationery Week and what better way to end it than with my favourite theme: #SendALetter day. Writing letters is a way to spread joy, love and kindness. I have always said that we should write more letters. However, today, I want to focus on using letters in a way that benefits the society that we live in. Let’s write letters. Even if you don’t know who to write to, continue reading. There are so many people out there that could benefit from receiving a letter from you. Strangers, friends, family.  Donate a letter to help someone today.

You can write to anyone: a friend, a family member, a colleague… Anyone you know that could benefit from receiving a bit of love. Perhaps you have someone to thank. Do it through a handwritten letter. Maybe you just want someone to know that they are not alone. Write it down and remind them. If you’re not sure who to write to, here are my top three choices of organisations or sites that you can refer to. These all encourage you to write to someone who could really use a smile…

Let’s start with my top choice, From Me to You, which I have spoken about before. I absolutely love their mission and just had to share it with you today:

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The Mental Health Benefits of Doing Art

Posted on by Reema

Mental Health Benefits of Doing Art

I am super excited to share this fantastic guest post with you. Today, we have Kate from All The Trinkets talking about creating and the mental health benefits of doing art. Since it’s also National Craft Month, it only seemed right to talk a little about how being creative can have an amazing impact on your wellness. Who better to do it than this kickass female blogger on International Women’s Day?

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DIY Self-Care Tracker

Posted on by Reema

The past few days have been hard for me.  I woke up yesterday with a reaction on my face.  It was painful and I had no idea how to fix it.  I spent most of the day applying a cold flannel to my face.  As a result, it calmed down a little.  Luckily I had today off work.  My plan was to blog all day.  Yet that obviously didn’t happen.  In fact, I spent most of the day in bed.  With Netflix on.  Being grumpy.  Not only is it causing me pain, it’s really affecting my mental health.  Self-esteem has never been my strong point.  Having burn marks certainly hasn’t helped.  While I could complain about it, this post isn’t about that.  Perhaps if I was a beauty blogger, I’d talk about it.  But I’m definitely not one.

And after spending all day in bed, I decided to get up and do something I could do.  I can’t magically remove burn marks.  They will take their time to heal.  I cannot rush that.  What I can do, however, is play with stationery and practice self-care.  Self-care comes in many forms.  I cannot tell you what it means to you – no one except yourself can.  There’s plenty of non-stationery related ideas, such as having a bath or going for a walk.  I’ve also listed some stationery related ideas in a previous post – my stationery self-care challenge.

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A Year of Notes to Yourself

Posted on by Reema

Today has been a very “mental health” day for me.  This essentially means that I actually took time to think or talk about mental health problems or wellbeing.  It means, I spent a lot of time focusing on my own mental health today.  “Mental Health” days are really important I think.  You don’t have to go out of your way to do something.  It’s more about pausing for a moment and reflecting.  How’s your mental health recently?  Have you been looking after it?  Is there anything you can do to improve it?  Sometimes I think we forget to do this.  Physical health is usually easier to recognise, simply because if you’re in pain then you’ll know.  Although, it’s a bit like checking for any lumps or bumps or going for regular check ups.  I think mental health is something that’s easily neglected.

So today, upon reflection, I’ve decided to try and write some little notes full of love to myself.  I’m hoping to spend the next year filling a jar with things that matter.  Then, at the end of next year, pull them out and read them.  Alternatively, if I go through a rough period or have a low day, grab a few to read.  It will be full of happy memories, good thoughts, gratitude and lots of love.

I really wanted to address this today because I think we often forget about ourselves in the holidays.  Sometimes we get so busy trying to please others, buying them the perfect gifts or worrying about money that we just forget to pause for a moment.  Christmas is one of my favourite holidays but it’s not always easy.  It comes with financial concerns, stress, a mad rush, pressure and sometimes also loneliness.  It’s definitely not easy – especially when everyone around you might seem like they are having a great time.  I don’t have much advice in how to make Christmas better if you experience any of those things.  However, one thing I can always promote is self-care.  This is one way of helping your future days be a bit happier, I think.

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Stationery Self-Care

Posted on by Reema

Self-care is a topic that I preach all the time. It’s so important for your wellbeing to make time for yourself. However, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve neglected my own self-care in the past few months. I have spent most of my time wallowing in self-pity, for sure, at the problems I was going through. My self-care game has been pretty lacking. In all honesty, I actually only noticed this because a friend made me promise him to look after myself when he’s not around. And on reflection, I realised that he may be onto something… So, in order to keep this promise, I’ve decided to make the rest of September the time where I try to reinforce the habit. And stationery makes me happy… Thus, Stationery Self-Care!

Since stationery makes me happy (I’m an addict, okay?!), a lot of my self-care ideas actually revolve around it. There’s plenty of ideas that don’t involve stationery but… eh! I thought it might be nice to create a list of stationery related self-care ideas that I can practice in the next few weeks. I figured, if I list them all now then I can use it as inspiration on the lethargic days. Since this is a long term game, I’ll definitely be putting non-stationery self-care on the list afterwards too. For now, this is a fun way to get started!

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